Currents of Change profile

Daniel Bida

Sustainable manure management

ZooShare is a biogas story now being told in the GTA (to Zoo visitors, schoolchildren, professionals and politicians), Zoo poo jokes and all, and it’s incredibly meaningful. We’ll be converting approximately 17,000 tonnes of organic waste into renewable power and fertilizer each year, resulting in greenhouse gas reductions equivalent to 10,000 tonnes per year—it’s going to be amazing.

For the Zoo and our investors, this project will bring financial returns and more sustainable manure management. For the community, it’s going to divert valuable organic waste away from landfills, and create educational opportunities around the benefits of biogas. And for the biogas sector and provincial regulators, it’s a high profile example of what biogas is and how powerful it can be as a tool to divert waste, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and generate green energy and fertilizer.

We want to change the way kids (and adults alike!) see waste

This project will hopefully shift behaviours for all those who experience and interact with the biogas plant or our educational programming. In the same way that I learned about recycling in elementary school and then started to recycle at home, we want to change the way kids (and adults alike!) see waste, having them use the green bin rather than the garbage. It’s a simple, yet powerful change that each of us can make every day.

Be mindful of your waste

If I had a message for all Canadians it would be—be mindful of your waste. Ask yourself, where in your life are you creating waste? And I don’t mean only physical waste, like spoiled food in the fridge. Maybe it’s with your energy use or perhaps it’s with your time. Stopping these ‘leaks’ and shifting your behaviours to make as little waste as possible could make a significant impact on your life and in your community.

For us, ZooShare is the beginning of something really great…

ZooShare is an Ontario renewable energy co-operative building North America’s first zoo-based biogas plant. The 500 kW facility will recycle manure from the Toronto Zoo and food waste from local grocery stores into renewable power and fertilizer, reducing GHG emissions by over 10,000 tonnes per year. Bullfrog is one of ZooShare’s Founding Investors and its official Education Sponsor, helping to fund biogas workshops and related educational programming for public school students.

Learn more about this project.